Appointments

Both same day and routine appointments can be made at reception or by telephone. If you feel that you need to see someone on the same day then please let us know when you ring and the duty Doctor will often ring you to discuss the problem and decide if an appointment is required. For routine appointments you may see whichever doctor you choose. You may also book appointments on line. If you find that you cannot keep an appointment, please let us know so that we can offer the cancelled appointment to another patient.

You should be aware that it may not be possible to deal with all issues during a routine appointment, as time is limited. The Doctor will prioritise the most important and arrange further appointments where necessary to discuss less urgent problems.

Please remember that emergencies occur throughout the day and it is necessary on occasions for the doctor you are seeing to leave the surgery to deal with them. The receptionist will inform you if this happens and you will be offered the choice of awaiting the doctor’s return or making another appointment.

If you make an appointment or request a visit and have not been seen at the practice recently, you will be offered general health screening as part of our service to you.

Home Visits

Home visits are at the discretion of the doctor who will always visit at home when necessary. However, home visits should be regarded as a service for the housebound and those who are genuinely too ill to come to the surgery. Many of our patients come to the surgery by taxi and telephone numbers are printed on the back of this booklet for your convenience.

When the condition of the patient does require a home visit, please try to contact the surgery between 8am and 10am. The most urgent cases will be dealt with first. When requesting urgent home visits, you will usually be asked to give details to the receptionist to allow the doctor to assess your request.

Please remember that several patients can be seen in the practice in the time that it takes to make one home visit. There are also better facilities for examining and treating patients at the Medical Centre.

NEW Evening and Weekend Appointments

You can now access appointments in the evening and at the weekend if you are registered at a practice in the Bridgwater and surrounding area.

How Do I Book An Appointment?

Patients who need to see a clinician in the evening or weekend can book an appointment by talking to the receptionist at this practice during opening hours. In the Bridgwater and surrounding area, the following practices are currently involved in this scheme:

Appointments (face-to-face and telephone consultations) are available between 6.30pm and 8pm Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings. For urgent evening and weekend appointments outside opening hours, continue to call NHS 111

Appointments Online

You can now book an appointment, check or cancel pre-booked appointments, request a repeat prescription or change your name and address online.

Before you can use these online services, you need to complete a registration form, which is available from reception or download here, and bring it in together with a form of photo ID such as passport or driving licence: this is so we can be absolutely certain we are only granting access to bona fide patients. We will then provide you with your unique patient identification details which you will need as a first time user and full instructions for using the service.

You can then create your account by following the simple instructions, using the codes we have given you and adding your own personal password – these are for security purposes and should not be disclosed to any other person.

Decide what you want to get out of your appointment. You may wish to fill in

this form to take with you to be used as a reminder during the consultation.

Think carefully about ways you can improve your own health. Consider the

common things that can make our health worse e.g. smoking, drinking too much

alcohol, over eating, not doing enough exercise. Your doctor would be happy to

help you to set and achieve goals that may improve your overall health.

Arrange a double appointment if you need to deal with more than one thing or

have to discuss something that may require more time and consideration.

Consider taking someone along with you to help prompt you about the things

you want to talk about and to remember the outcomes from the consultation.

Remember to cancel any appointments you can’t make

During your appointment:

Tell your doctor of any new symptoms or changes in your current

symptoms

Pass the ‘Patient Agenda’ form to your doctor and at the end of the appointment

check you have covered what you wanted to and have an agreed action plan.

If you don’t understand what the doctor is saying to you, ask them to repeat it so

that you are both clear.

Don’t be worried about asking questions.

Long term conditions - agenda setting leaflet available to download here.

Test Results

If you wish to telephone for results, please do so in person and after 2pm.

Note that the practice has a strict policy regarding confidentiality and data protection and we will only release test results to the person to whom they relate unless that person has given prior permission for the release of this data or they are not capable of understanding the results.

When you take your test you will be told how long it will be before the results are returned to the practice. It is your responsibility to check your results and to make an appointment to discuss them with your doctor if your are advised to do so.

All patients at the practice are allocated a named, accountable GP at registration here. This will be the doctor named on your medical card and he or she will have overall supervision of your care and treatment. However, you may see any of the doctors working here and if you would prefer your named doctor to be changed, please inform reception.